Eternally New - Isaiah 43:19


How about some Christmas trivia?
When did the first Christmas Tree come into use? Many sources point to the first decorated Christmas Tree being found in Latvia in the year 1510.
When was the first Advent Wreath used?  It originated during the Middle Ages, with formal rituals revolving around the Advent Wreath being in place within Catholic and Lutheran traditions by the year 1600.
When was “Silent Night” first sung?  Christmas Eve of 1818 offered by assistant priest Joseph Mohr, as he scrambled to put a poem he had written in 1816 to guitar music when the church’s organ failed to work in preparation for the Christmas Eve worship.
When was “Hark The Herald Angels” written?  In 1737, Charles Wesley composed this hymn, originally titled after the first line: “Hark! how all the welkin rings, glory to the King of kings.”  The first line was later changed to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” by George Whitefield—much to Wesley’s displeasure.
These are all part of what we would call Christmas traditions.  However, I would point out the lack of a decorated Christmas tree in 1509.  No formal Advent Wreath understandings in 1599.  “Silent Night” was not sung in 1817, nor “Hark! how all the welkin rings…” in 1736.
None of these wonderful traditions we enjoy so much existed until over 1500 years after the birth of Jesus.  How about the celebration of Christmas on December 25th?  Even the celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25th was not observed until over three hundred years after His birth.  At some point, each of these, and all of the things that we usually think of as Christmas traditions were something new.  Today, in song, we have celebrated some of those traditional carols that were new at one point in history, along with some new arrangements of those traditional songs, and even new songs themselves.  Today we have done something new…
What’s with all the emphasis on newness?  Shouldn’t things always stay the same?  We tend to shy away from new things.  Some folks don’t like to try new things.  I mean some of the most common words offered when something new is introduced are, “we’ve never done it that way before.”  In other words, “don’t mess with our tradition.”  Those seven words, “we’ve never done it that way before,” are often known as the seven last words of the church.  Why?  Because when we refuse to consider anything new, we deny the active work of God in the world today.  You see, God, while He is, always has been, and always will be, is not stagnate nor stale.  God is Eternally New—God is always about creating or doing something that has not been before.
There was formless void…there was nothingness...there was only darkness…and God did something new—He said, “let there be light.”  And there was something new in creation, something that hadn’t existed before.  Each day God continued to do something new, and on the sixth day did something new that changed our lives forever…He decided, after looking out upon all that He had created and decided to continuing making something new as He decided to create humanity—making us in His own image.
Hundreds of years later, when many in the world had gone their own ways, God decided to do something up and raise up a family to become a nation, that they might turn all the eyes of all nations toward Himself, and so He called Abram.
Years later when Abraham’s descendants found themselves in captivity in Egypt, God decided to do something new and intervened to save them from their captors.  He did something new…sending Moses to represent God Himself to the Pharaoh.
As the people wandered in the wilderness following their flight out of Egypt, and grumbled about being hungry, God gave the people something new to eat, creating manna along the ground.
Years later when the people found themselves in captivity once more, the prophet Isaiah offered these words from God, “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.  Be alert, be present.  I’m about to do something brand-new.”
He did that new thing in Jesus…never before had anyone heard of a god who would step down from heaven, enter the world as a vulnerable baby and then, as an adult, offer His own life as atonement for our sin.
God’s eternally new works did not stop there, though.  Paul reminds us that God continues to do something new when he writes, “If anyone is in Christ, behold, there is a new creation.”  When we surrender our lives over to God, God takes our old lives and recreates them into something completely new…filling our lives with His Holy Spirit and giving us new life centered in Christ.
God promises through His revelation to John that He is not done with newness, as the New Heaven and New Earth come together to form the New Jerusalem, and God’s words reach out to John, “See, I am making all things new.”
Until that day comes, we celebrate the new things He brings into our world through each of us, and all who follow Christ, for created in His image, we too are creators, we too are innovators, using the gifts of His Spirit to bring new things into the world that don’t point to us, but point to Him…the God unchanging God that is Eternally New…so this Christmas, as we celebrate the “new born king” let us look for the new ways God is moving in each of our lives.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.

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